Google Meet says your camera is blocked: how to unblock it in Chrome, Edge and Firefox

A website cannot use your camera until you allow it, and the browser remembers your answer. If you clicked Block once, or dismissed the question, Meet keeps seeing a refusal and shows a message about a blocked camera. Changing the permission for the site fixes it. If the permission is already allowed, the cause is somewhere else, covered further down.

Click the icon at the left of the address bar (a lock or a settings sliders icon) while you are on the Meet page. Find Camera in the list and set it to Allow. Chrome asks you to reload the page; do so and join again.

To see every site that has a decision, open chrome://settings/content/camera. Sites listed under Not allowed to use your camera are blocked; remove meet.google.com from that list or move it to the allowed list. The same page lets you choose which camera Chrome uses by default.

Click the lock icon in the address bar, open Permissions for this site and set Camera to Allow. Or open edge://settings/content/camera and remove meet.google.com from the Block list. Reload the page afterwards.

Click the camera icon with a line through it, or the lock icon, in the address bar. Remove the Blocked setting for Use the camera next to Meet, then reload. Firefox also lets you change the default under Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Permissions, then Camera.

Check the operating system first. On Windows, open Settings, then Privacy and security, then Camera, and make sure camera access is on and your browser is allowed. On a Mac, open System Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Camera, and turn on the switch next to your browser, then restart the browser.

Then check which camera Meet uses. In Meet, open Settings, then Video, and choose your real camera. A different program holding the camera, such as Zoom or Teams, gives the same blocked or no signal message, so close those too.

Privacy extensions and some antivirus browser add-ons block camera access on purpose. Open the page in a private or incognito window; if it works there, an extension is the cause, and you can disable them one by one.

On a work or school account, an administrator can block the camera for Meet by policy. A message that says the setting is managed by your organization means the change has to be made by the person who runs the account.

Open a camera test page. If the browser asks for permission and the picture appears, the camera and the browser are fine, and what is left is Meet's own setting or a work policy. If the picture does not appear in the test either, follow the steps for a camera that does not work at all.